Due to the nature of the class I’m tutoring, most of my tutoring sessions tend to be like Ashleigh’s. In a perfect world, we would have been in every class our clients have been in, and know their material front and back. But from time to time a student comes in for help with a paper-or studying for a test-where they know the content better than their tutor. What do we do when that happens? Hopefully not send them away—though sometimes it may seem like the easiest solution. I thought Ashleigh did an excellent job stepping back from the content and focusing on the student’s learning strategies. While they couldn’t review to bulk of the material in their session, Ashleigh was able to give the student the tools she needed to study for her test. Surely the student would have benefited from a tutor who had taken the course before; but the time spent in her session was not wasted. I would feel completely out of my element trying to help someone review content I was not familiar with; but there are other parts to our job than just going over content. Focusing on those is still an effective way to spend a session, and clients will still be better off for the time spent with you.
I think that everyone can relate to clients such as the one Julia had to tutor. We can tell our clients to come to our sessions prepared until the cows come home, but some of them still will not get the memo. There’s only so much work that can be done with a book and a reluctant client. Notes and other study tools are the best way for us to discern how to use our sessions in the most effective way. Without them, it is much harder to gather a clear picture of the student’s learning style. Additionally, there’s no way for us to see what outside materials the professor is bringing in. It is highly likely that the students in these sessions are there for us to do their work for them—and sometimes they get away with it like Julia’s did. And while Julia came up with excellent strategies after the session was over, it’s much harder to do so mid-session. I think the best way to deal with these types of clients is to stay aware of how much work you end up doing. If a client remains disengaged throughout the entire session, then you have to change some things up. Finding a non-confrontational way to send the message, “I’m not going to do your work” is tough; but preventing a tutoring session where the student takes advantage of you is well worth the effort.
